The Synthesis of Yoga - Sri Aurobindo Ashram

392 The Yoga of Integral Knowledge
We see at once that from this point of view the realisation
of the pure quiescent self which we gain by withdrawing from
mind, life and body, is for us only the acquisition of the necessary
basis for this greater realisation. Therefore that process
is not sufficient for our Yoga; something else is needed more
embracingly positive. As we drew back from all that constitutes
our apparent self and the phenomenon of the universe
in which it dwells to the self-existent, self-conscious Brahman,
so we must now repossess our mind, life and body with the
all-embracing self-existence, self-consciousness and self-delight
of the Brahman. We must not only have the possession of a
pure self-existence independent of the world-play, but possess
all existence as our own; not only know ourselves as an infinite
unegoistic consciousness beyond all change in Time and Space,
but become one with all the outpouring of consciousness and
its creative force in Time and Space; not only be capable of
a fathomless peace and quiescence, but also of a free and an
infinite delight in universal things. For that and not only pure
calm is Sachchidananda, is the Brahman.
If it were easily possible to elevate ourselves to the supramental
plane and, dwelling securely there, realise world and
being, consciousness and action, outgoing and incoming of conscious
experience by the power and in the manner of the divine
supramental faculties, this realisation would offer no essential
difficulties. But man is a mental and not yet a supramental being.
It is by the mind therefore that he has to aim at knowledge
and realise his being, with whatever help he can get from the
supramental planes. This character of our actually realised being
and therefore of our Yoga imposes on us certain limitations and
primary difficulties which can only be overcome by divine help
or an arduous practice, and in reality only by the combination
of both these aids. These difficulties in the way of the integral
knowledge, the integral realisation, the integral becoming we
have to state succinctly before we can proceed farther.
Realised mental being and realised spiritual being are really
two different planes in the arrangement of our existence,
the one superior and divine, the other inferior and human. To